Legacy: The Next Generation
by Babyuknowme13
Summary: We've all read next gen sannin fics. But what we haven't read is a complete story of our new ikle sannin. Team seven is cursed. 1st betrayed them, 2nd one died. They say 3rd times the charm. Let's find out shall we? Dedication fic for a friend Irish Shift
1. Chapter 1

LC; This is a new fic!

Naruto; She's calling it Legacy: The Next Generation!

Sasuke; And once again she is tormenting us before getting to the actual fic.

LC; I see nothing illegal about this therefore I do it!

Naruto; So even if it's morally wrong, so long as it's not illegal, you'll do it?

LC; Some illegal stuff to, but only some.

Sasuke; What do you do that's illegal?

LC; For one? I've never carried a house key. I just pick the lock since it's cooler and easier.

Naruto; And another?

LC; I know how to hot wire a car. I know people who sell weed and crack and all that good stuff. In fact I'm smoking a big bag of it as I write this! Everyone reading this knows they want to be me!

Both; That explains her crazy ideas.

LC; Anyway the one illegal thing I really want to do is steal anime but I haven't figured out how to do that yet!

Disclaimer; I do not own anything yet! I still haven't thought of how to steal Naruto from Kishimoto, but just you wait Kishi-kun, I'm coming for you!

Chapter 1; Godchild.

Jiraya didn't know what to feel. His student lie at his feet, cold and dead, holding his new born daughter in his arms with a smile on his face.  
>The child's cries rang in his ears but he made no move to pick her up. He didn't trust himself to just yet.<p>

"_We decided to name you as her godfather." _He couldn't leave her alone like this, in the cold and among the bloodshed.  
>Slowly, almost afraid he'd break her, he picked the red haired child up and cradled her in his arms. She paused in her squalls to inspect this new man and wrinkled her nose in a rather cute manner.<br>He was hooked.

"Well Nora-chan, we should take you home, shouldn't we?" He asked, tickling the child underneath her skin. As her giggled filled the air he couldn't help but grin back. No need to worry Minato, Kushina, your daughter is in good hands.

"You're going to be quite the looker when you grow up." He predicted, carrying her back to the village and to where his old sensei was waiting for them.  
>There was no need to delay the inevitable, but he would be damned if he'd let the kid go through it alone. He had made lots of mistakes in his past; he wasn't going to let this be one of them.<p>

"Word got out that Minato had to make a jinchuriki." Sarutobi looked every one of his near seventy years. By all rights he should have retired by now but alas, it was not meant to be.

"Damn, I was hoping we could keep it under wraps." Jiraya cursed, holding the sleeping infant as he spoke with his sensei. This meant all the negative feelings of the villagers would be directed at the little ball of happy in his arms.

"As was I, my student." The Sandaime sighed, straightening his posture. "All I could do was make a law that anyone old enough to remember this would be unable to tell those of the younger generation."  
>He just knew his student would take the next part hard. He looked somewhat happy holding the infant child.<p>

"Jiraya, the council wanted her death." Seeing his students enraged eyes he quickly continued with damage control. "I managed to make a deal with them."

"What was this deal?" Somehow, Jiraya knew he wasn't going to like it.

"That the child be placed in an orphanage and treated as any other orphan." Hiruzen sighed, watching the horror flicker in his student's eye.

"I'm her godfather I should be allowed to take care of her!" Jiraya shouted. By doing this they were taking away any rights the child had to her clan!

"They do not know of her parentage." Hiruzen informed him. "I thought it best not to tell them lest they take matters into their own hands. As for the deal, this was the best I could do. The council has gotten too strong and gone unchecked for too long now."  
>Though he still steamed underneath his skin, Jiraya knew that his sensei had done all he could do for Minato and Kushina's daughter.<br>It would have to do.

"Furthermore Jiraya, I regret informing you but the council decided it would be best for you to leave the village for a time. They claim it is so you can gather more information but somehow I believe it's more likely they don't want you near the child." This was the ultimate blow.

Jiraya could take having the girl live in an orphanage. He could take her being treated like a pariah. However, he had only been mellow with these choices because he had thought he would be there to protect and guide her.  
>He didn't think he'd get sent away.<p>

Two hours later Jiraya stood in front of an out of the way orphanage with a little bundle of joy in his arms. He thought that made it worse, the fact that the child was smiling and giggling, not knowing the strife she would have to live through.

"Be strong, Nora-chan." He whispered, setting her down on the stoop with a letter on top of the bundle.

He would not return for four years. Four years that Nora would spend trying to survive on her own. Four years to let Nora grow up on her own and hated.  
>He could only hope the damage could be fixed when he returned. As he faced the Hokage monuments for the last time before leaving the village, he muttered one last thing.<p>

"The things I do for this village."

"Nora Uzumaki get back here!" As things turned out, it wasn't as bad as Jiraya had feared. It was ten times worse for the young now four year old.

She'd grown from the infant left on the orphanage door step. Her red hair was short and cut like a boy's, often confusing the villagers of her true gender.  
>She wore a black shirt with a red swirl sewn on the back, and a pair of tan shorts. On her head she wore a blue bandana.<p>

As far as Konohagakure knew, the jinchuriki was a) a brat, b) weak, and c) stupid. However, her true identity was d) none of the above.  
>She'd learned painfully early on that being smarter than the other kids put her directly in the lime light and that was dangerous. She acted weaker so less people would be willing to beat her. She acted dumber so no one would punish her. She didn't like it, but it was essential to her own survival.<p>

Back to her current predicament, Nora was being chased down the busy streets of the village after being kicked out of the orphanage earlier that day.  
>She didn't understand why she was so hated, but she knew it would be bad if she got caught. She kept running, praying that she could find somewhere to hide for the day. Praying she could survive to see another day.<p>

As she ran, unshed tears blinded her eyes and she bumped into a man. She tried to get up to keep running but the man grabbed her not harshly.

"Hey, it's alright I won't hurt you." It was so unexpected. She almost didn't know what to say.

"You won't?" Jiraya had just returned from his spying mission only to be nearly run over by the bundle of joy he had left alone on the orphanage step.

"No, I won't hurt you." He said slowly, he picked up the four year old as he spoke. Some villagers looked at him strangely but none of them approached them.  
>He carried her to the hokage tower. It was time he started being the godfather he had promised his student he would be. There were no more excuses.<p>

Half an Hour Later.

"What do you mean I still can't formally adopt her!" Jiraya roared. The entire village heard his anger filled declaration and wondered just who the world's biggest pervert wanted to adopt.  
>The poor girl would probably end up scarred for life.<p>

Nora stood hidden slightly behind the white haired old man's leg, watching the two argue in steadily quieter voices.  
>They seemed very angry for some reason. She had a bad feeling that they were angry about her.<p>

"The council doesn't want her adopted by you. Kakashi, Anko, Kurenai, and my own son Asuma have all tried adopting her but they will not allow it." The Sandaime was almost growling in frustration at this point.  
>Those damned council members always made things difficult for him. He was certain they did it on purpose because they enjoyed his anguish. He would not be surprised.<p>

"I'm her godfather, I should be allowed to!" Jiraya raged against the stupid civilian council. Why those old codgers even had a say about this still confused him but he was never one for politics anyway.

"As I said before they do not know of her heritage." Hiruzen really wished on some days that he could just tell them.  
>He would love to see the looks on their faces when they realize they had been treating their Yondaime's daughter in such a matter. He would really love that sight.<p>

After another half hour of both of them stewing over the unfairness of the stupid civilians, they made plans to make sure she was properly taken care of.  
>While she could not be officially adopted, who was to go against a young shinobi to be living with a shinobi?<p>

It was a risk, enrolling her so early. However they also knew it was her only chance at having anything comparable with a normal childhood.  
>She would move into an apartment where Jiraya would be able to keep an eye on her to be sure she didn't get into trouble. When Jiraya wasn't around, either Kakashi, Asuma, or Kurenai would watch her whenever she was at home.<br>Anko would watch her whenever she was travelling through the village or training or at the academy.  
>It was the best they could do.<p>

The start of the new term would be in less than a month and until then Jiraiya had a lot to do for the little sunspot walking next to him.  
>Really she had to jog to keep up with his longer strides, but he was a big picture man.<p>

The first thing he was getting her was some real clothes, food, then he'd see about an apartment he could rent.

"Come on Nora-chan." He said happily, tugging the girl forward as they reached a shinobi clothes store.

"We're getting you some new clothes." He told her. Judging from her build so far she was pretty thin, he'd have to fatten her up a little.

"Clothes?" Nora repeated. Today was one surprise after another. First she'd been kicked out for knocking over a lamp, which was really Ami, not her, now she was getting new clothes?

"But sir, I don't have money." She tried to protest as they walked through the door.

"I'm paying." He assured her, pulling her towards the child section.

Jiraiya furrowed his brow as he inspected some of the clothes. Most of it was a couple sizes too big for the squirt.  
>He finally found some shorts and a dark blue shirt he thought might fit her and sent her to the changing room. She came out a minute later and he noticed how much like a boy she looked.<br>Why was her hair cut like that?

"Nora, I have an idea." He said, gesturing her to come to him. When she did he made her close her eyes before brushing her hair, straightening it out.  
>It reached her chin, he noticed. It was just long enough. He took a piece of ribbon in his hands, blue ironically, and tied it up into pigtails.<p>

Nora looked in the mirror and gasped. It looked like a totally different person in the reflection. Tentatively, she smiled.  
>Soon she was giggling to herself, before being tickled mercilessly by the older man and bursting into a fit of laughter.<p>

Jiraiya bought the clothes quickly. The clerk looked like he wanted to argue about selling clothes meant for Nora but didn't.  
>He didn't want a shinobi like one of the sannin angry at him. Even if the man was being nice to the Kyubi brat.<p>

They left the clothing store and Jiraiya led them to another district. Then he stopped in front of a weapon store.  
>Nora would need some practice shuriken and kunai, he nodded at his decision before walking inside.<p>

"What can I do for you?" A middle aged man with oil on his hands walked out of the back of the store at the jingle of the bell.

"We're going to need some practice shuriken and kunai." He ordered, gesturing to some pouches.

"A few smoke pellets and a couple pouches too." The man nodded, pausing for a minute when he saw Nora before shrugging his shoulders.

"Why does a little girl like her need weapons like these? Little early for the academy isn't it?" He asked, making light conversation as he gathered the order together.

"Yeah but she's a special case." Jiraiya said. This man's shop was new, meaning he had recently moved in.  
>That meant the man did not know about the Kyubi. Nora would not be mistreated here.<p>

"Just be careful not to hurt yourself with these, alright?" He joked casually with the red haired girl hidden slightly behind the white haired man's pant leg.

"What's your grandgirl's name?" Jiraiya felt his eye twitch at the old comment but answered anyway.

"Nora Uzumaki." He answered, taking the gear and paying the man.

"See you around, come again!" The call on their shoulders, the two walked out of the store.

"You don't talk much do you?" It was near noon so Jiraiya decided to take the kid out to lunch. He'd gone to his old student's favorite restuarant, Ichiraku Ramen.  
>It seemed the girl took to ramen like a duck to water.<p>

"Uh, no sir." Nora answered, looking down into her now empty bowl in shame.

"Don't call me that, it makes me feel old!" Jiraiya whined, pouting playfully. This kid was too serious.

"Are you still hungry?" Why did he feel such a chill coming from his wallet all of a sudden?

An hour later Nora was riding piggy back on the sannin as he walked around the apartment district. He hadn't needed an apartment since he made jounin during the second great war.  
>He had never stayed in the village long enough for it to matter.<br>If he stayed for a week or more he merely rented a room in a hotel. He couldn't do that now though.

Eventually he found a nice looked place with two bedrooms and one bathroom. The kitchen was already equipped, there was a couch and table in the living room.  
>Sure it was a little small, but it would be perfect for the little sunspot.<p>

Nora looked around the room that would be hers in a sort of awe. She honestly had never thought to have such a large room all to herself.  
>At the orphanage she slept in the closet among the mops and brooms.<p>

Sure, there wasn't anything in the room yet, but the man said he'd get her furniture. She felt a little bad though.  
>He was doing so much for her but she didn't know why. So far if anyone ever did anything for her, they wanted something in exchange. What did this man want?<p>

"Um, excuse me?" She was poking her head around the corner to the kitchen, where the man was inspecting the cooking supplies.  
>It looked like he was trying to figure out how the oven worked.<p>

"Yeah, what is it Nora-chan?" The man asked kindly, smiling at her.

"Um, not that I'm not grateful, but why are you doing all this for me?" She asked bashfully, afraid he'd be angry with her.

"What do you think I want?" He asked her, kneeling down to her height.

"I-I'm smarter than I look. I can make food like pancakes and eggs. I can work at whatever you want me to, and I swear I won't complain." He stopped her.

"I don't want or need anything from you." He said softly, drawing the girl into her first hug.

"Believe it or not, I owe you too much to ever want anything from you. All I want is for you to be happy kid." Nora could feel the prickling sensation that meant she was about to cry but held them back.  
>The man probably didn't want a cry baby.<p>

"I know you've had a rough life so far, and I want to change that. I want to be able to see you do the things you want to do. I want to see you playing and laughing with your friends some day." No one had ever said such nice things to her before.  
>Nora bowed her head into his shoulder but didn't cry. She wasn't a crybaby!<p>

"Someday I'll tell you why I want your happiness more than anything. I'll tell you about how your mother would kill all those fools who looked at you funny. I'll tell how your father would make cooing sounds while your mother was pregnant with you." He could feel his own throat choke up but kept on.  
>There were things that needed to be said.<p>

"One day I'll tell you about how much they loved you and this village." He paused, feeling a dampness on his shoulder.

"Until that day though, I'll just try to love you enough for both of them." The flood gates opened and all other emotions were swept away with the tide.  
>Jiraiya's heart along with them.<p>

A week passed and finally their new house began feeling like a home. It was late, and Jiraiya was standing in Nora's doorway, just watching her sleep.  
>She was clutching the doll he'd gotten her as a present. It had been a surprise to go with her new bed.<p>

"Minato, Kushina, your little girl is strong." He said quietly, almost afraid to wake her.

"She's small for her age, and horribly thin. She's been starved. Though she doesn't have a single scar, she's beaten more times than she knows to count." Here he clenched his fists on the doorframe, leaving nail marks.

"She knows how to read and write though, she taught herself." He had been so surprised when he caught her writing her name in the dirt.  
>She had spelled Uzumaki wrong though.<p>

"She has Kushina's hair, but your eyes Minato. She has three whisker like marks on each cheek. I wonder if that's the sign of a jinchuriki." He paused, thinking back.

"I don't think it is. Kushina, you didn't have those." He smiled, thinking of how alike the redheads were.

"She's a perfect mixture of both of you. Independent, loud once she gets used to you, and she's friendly." She made a friend earlier that same day.

"I think she even has a crush on a boy. He seems like a good kid, but don't worry. I'll take care of your little girl." He smiled, remembering seeing the two play together.

"She swears by ramen, you'd be proud of how she beat your record Minato." He chuckled lightly, remembering the face on Tsuichi when he changed the pictures.

"She learns fast and can already throw a kunai straight. Though she still misses the target." He watched her yawn in her sleep and roll over, still clutching the blue haired doll.

"Her favorite color is blue, and she likes to sing. She made up a little song earlier today." He remembered clapping and shouting for an encore.

"You'd both be so proud of your little girl." And watching her sleep tonight, Jiraiya knew he was too.

THE END OF THE FIRST CHAPTER SO GO AWAY UNTIL NEXT TIME PLEASE!

LC; Okay, now that was sweet.

Naruto; Geez, your going to make me choke on the fluff.

Sasuke; I feel ill.

LC; BE QUIET! I think it's cute!


	2. enrolled

LC; Okay time for more sannin of the next generation of whatever.

Naruto; You stayed up late reading fics and watching anime.

Sasuke; And you didn't even take a nap for longer than thirty minutes.

LC; I can't help it. The fics are good and I can't sleep through a mystery.

Naruto; You were watching anime, not mystery.

LC; Half right. It was Detective Conan, aka Case Closed. A very good anime mystery.

Sasuke; Oh yeah, isn't it like the seventh longest running anime?

LC; Yeah.

Naruto; That's going to take you a while to finish.

LC; I know. (COD, clouds of depression, gather above her)

Sasuke; Let's move on.

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto. I'm too tired to think of a way to get it from Kishimoto.

Chapter 2: Student.

Nora's first day of class came all too soon. She was only four, going on five, when she entered. She wasn't the youngest to ever enter, but that was a small comfort.  
>Everyone else in the class was seven, she was dwarfed by them all. As she stood at the front of the class waiting her turn to be introduced and seated, she couldn't help but feel nervous.<p>

She didn't want to make a bad impression on her first day, and she wasn't sure what to say when she got introduced.  
>Her new sensei, Iruka Umino, seemed nice though.<p>

They'd been instructed to say their name, reason for entering the academy, and dream. Nora wanted to make not only a good impression, but a _big _one too!  
>Nora's eyes shone as she thought of the perfect thing to say.<p>

"I'm Nora Uzumaki, I entered cause I wanted to be like a friend of mine!" She said when she was called up, nearly the last one.

"And my dream is, to be the best Hokage!" The silence was almost tangible.

"T-That's a big dream." Iruka-sensei told her. She smiled shyly up at him, glad he didn't call her silly or stupid.

She took her seat next to a girl with long black hair and onyx eyes, and soon another boy sat down next to her, his hair a platinum blonde.  
>She looked side to side at the two, and wondered if they could be friends. Her second and third friends ever.<p>

She knew kids her age were rarely let into the academy, and she wanted to prove she was the right choice.  
>She listened raptly to everything Iruka said when they explained what they'd be learning. When the history lesson came, she struggled hard to be able to memorize the names and faces of famous people in Konoha's past.<p>

She memorized the names of the two jutsu Minato Namikaze, the yondaime, had created. She reread the names of the shodaime and nidaime's techniques respectively, including the information on the stolen Nidaime's sword.

At lunch she quizzed herself on what she learned before going out to eat the bento Jiraiya-jiji had made for her.  
>He was really nice, and had helped train her to be ready for when classes started. He had gotten her an apartment, food, clothes, and tools. She couldn't thank him enough!<p>

She ate the rice balls he made and was surprised they tasted so good. From the way he had been eyeing the cooking utensals, she wasn't sure he knew how to cook.

"Hey what's a kid like you doing here so early?" She gasped and turned around to see the black haired girl she had sat next to.

"Um, Jiraiya-jiji got me enrolled early." She said, nervously tugging at her bandana, which was tied around her neck for luck.

"I'm Hikari Uchiha, I guess we're classmates then." She said stiffly before turning away. Nora tilted her head to one side and watched as she walked away.

After finishing off her lunch, Nora decided to play for a while, since she still had 45 minutes before class started again.  
>While she was swinging, she discovered how different everything looked upside down, like when she swung really high and tilted her head back.<p>

After hopping off, she went into a handstand, using the tree as a support and found everything looked kind of funny from this perspective.  
>She wasn't able to stay that way long before she got dizzy though, and she fell down soon enough.<p>

"What are you doing?" This time it was the platinum blonde boy from her class speaking.

"Playing." She answered.

"I'm Inomaru Yamanaka, what's your name?" He asked her.

"Nora Uzumaki." She told him, getting back on her head again.

"Why are you doing that?" He asked, watching her get dizzy and fall again.

"Because it looks funny when you look at things different." She explained to him. He shrugged before trying it, though he was able to do it without the tree for support.

"Hey, Hikari's frown looks kind of like a smile upside down." He said, nodding his head in the direction of the Uchiha girl.

"Hey, your right!" Nora giggled. She was glad she'd made a new friend so quickly. Maybe now things would get even better for her?

When she got home, she was surprised to find a stranger in the apartment. She quickly hid behind the umbrella stand and watched the man who had been walking from the living room to the kitchen.  
>He had spiky silver hair, and wore a shinobi uniform and his hitaite all crooked.<p>

Being as quiet as she could, she snuck from her hiding place to the kitchen, where she saw the man making a pot of coffee.

"I wonder when she'll get home from the academy." He said, talking to himself.

He knew she was hiding behind him, but played along to make her feel better. If she wanted to come out, she would.  
>He would just try and make it more comfortable for his sensei's daughter until she chose to announce her presence.<p>

Nora waited until he was occupied with pouring the coffee before moving to an empty space between the fridge and the garbage can, where she wouldn't be seen from the counter or table.

Kakashi noticed how good she was at hiding and being quiet with mixed emotions. On one hand, it would be great for her career.  
>On the other though, he felt a little bad that she was hiding from him.<p>

Suddenly hearing another sound from the opposite side of the room, this one near the cupboard, he glanced over there.  
>He saw a little crumpled piece of paper, lying from where it had bounced on the cupboard. Turning his senses back to where Nora was hiding, he found that she had snuck back into the hall during the distraction and was heading to the living room.<p>

If she wanted to play hide and go seek, he would play along for now. He walked back to the living room at a leisurely pace, acting as nonchalant as possible.  
>He sat down on the small couch and started to read his ICHA ICHA, waiting for her next move.<p>

She was hiding behind the couch, but before he had come in, she had set up her shoes to stick out from the side of the tv, making it look like she was hiding there.  
>She measured her breathing carefully, and made sure not to make any noise.<p>

Smirking to herself, she pulled out a little remote, one similar to the tv remote. Only this one would make specific noises when she pushed buttons.  
>The sound itself would come from the recievers she had placed around the house during her free time. He was about to get a scare!<p>

First she pressed the 1 button, which made a sneezing sound come from the tv, where 'she' was hiding.

Kakashi looked up from his book to the girl's hiding place across the room. He smiled under his mask at the shuffling sound that reached his ears.

"Well that's strange. Who's there?" He called, standing up and walking over to the tv. He opened it up, only to jump in surprise as a jack in the box was triggered and came flying at him.

"That was...unexpected." He said wryly, thinking back on it. He found the reciever but didn't mention it. This kid was better than he thought.

"So little Nora-chan already got back. So now where is she?" He asked aloud, making a show of looking around the room.  
>There, he caught the minute sounds of someone holding in their snicker from behind the couch.<p>

"Hmm, behind the couch?" He pondered, walking over and looking from over the side, only to find a stuff cat with an auto meow when he did.

"Strange." He hadn't even heard her sneak away. Normally by now he would suplement chakra to his ears to find her, but that felt like cheating to him.  
>He wanted to be able to find her on his own. Without the use of chakra to aid him.<p>

"Well, if you can still hear me I'll introduce myself." He said to the seemingly empty room.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I'll be taking care of you until Jiraiya-sama returns." He informed her.

"If you want to keep playing this game, I'll win, just you wait." He assured her, starting to walk out of the room and down the hall to where the bedrooms were.

"So let's get started." He said gravely, suddenly wondering what he just got himself in to.

He heard the sound of a flushing toilet and went to the bathroom, to see it empty save another reciever.  
>He figured Jiraiya must have given them to her to play with and she just recorded the silly noises onto them. He had to admit, it was actually pretty clever. She was talented.<p>

He knew that during the distraction she must have moved and thus looked around for anything out of place in the hall.  
>Suddenly he heard the sound of a door clicking shut and turned to the door labeled Nora's Room. He smirked to himself and walked up to the door. No matter how slowly or quietly one tried to close a door, it would click.<p>

He opened it only to get a rain of stuffed toys onto his head. He stopped for a moment before picking a frog shaped wallet from his head.  
>That was one smart girl, but he was a jounin and would not be deterred. He looked around the slightly messy room and was surprised to see it covered with things and toys all over.<p>

Jiraiya had told him that he had bought one stuffed toy from each place he visited for Nora, but he had clearly underestimated his travelling speed.  
>There had to be at least a hundred toys just lying on the floor!<p>

"Okay, I'll bite, your very tricky. You'd do well for an infiltration specialist." He spoke, walking further into the room, keeping the door open behind him.  
>He never saw the reciever taped to the back of it.<p>

Nora watched from Jiraiya-jiji's room as Kakashi-san walked into her room and began looking under the bed.  
>She put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile. He was a lot more fun to play with than jiji. Jiji always cheated and used his chakra, even when she told him not to. She left a reciever under Jiraiya-jiji's pillow before climbing out the secret passageway that ended in the bathroom next door.<p>

Jiraiya had put in a similar secret get away in each room that led to another, in case something bad ever happened.  
>But she had a much more entertaining use for them. Getting from one room to the other without being heard or seen.<p>

Once in the bathroom, she took the reciever there and put it in her pocket. Next she carefully poked her head out of the door to see Kakashi-san now checking her closet.  
>His back was to her, so she carefully left the bathroom and went back to the kitchen. By hell and high water, she would win this game!<p>

Inside the kitchen, she set up a trap using the cans of food from the cupboard, so that when he opened the door he'd knock down the pyramid.  
>After that she hung up a bag of flour over the door, to swing down and hit him, covering him in the white dust.<p>

After that she opened the window and snuck outside, now for the next phase. Directly outside this window was a high fence, leaving a narrow gap between it and the apartment building.  
>She jumped down, being careful to keep her descent low to keep from hurting herself. When she reached the bottom, she went around the corner to where a loose board stood.<p>

Moving it to the side, she could crawl out, just in time to see a completely white Kakashi poke his head out the open window.

"That is one smart kid, but if she wants to drag this around the village, I'll humor her." He said, after quickly washing his face, mask, and hair of all flowery goodness.

Nora walked down the mostly empty alley calmly, waiting for the sound of pursuit. She heard the tell tale tapping of shinobi sandals over cement and knew he was taking this to the shinobi highway up above.

"So that's how he wants to play." She giggled, before ducking into an overturned crate to hide as he passed over.

After she was sure he was long gone, she went back to the apartment, cleaned up the mess, and put her bag and homework on the table.  
>An hour later, Kakashi came back to find her innocently finishing all her homework.<p>

"How did you?" He gasped upon seeing her.

"How'd I what?" She responded innocently. This was the part she loved the best. After so long being lied to every day, she had come to see the tell tales of lying.  
>A subtle twitch of the eye, or not looking someone directly, or maybe just fiddling with their hands. She had practiced until her poker face was perfect.<p>

"You snuck outside but got back so fast, how?" He stammered, waving his arms for emphasis.

"I don't know what your talking about crazy guy, but you shouldn't be here! This is my house!" She said assertively.

Kakashi had gone into the living room after reintroducing himself and explaining why he was there. He sat, staring blankly at his book, as he tried to figure out how she did it.  
>The only conclusion he could come to, was that the kid was a lot smarter than she looked.<p>

"Kakashi-san, what are you reading?" It was getting late, nearly time for Nora to go to sleep. She had been watching him reading and giggling at the book and figured it must be pretty funny to have him giggling like that.

"Just a book." He answered evasively.

"What's it about? You keep giggling so is it funny?" She asked him, moving around the couch to try and read it over his shoulder.

Kakashi momentarily panicked before performing a quick henge on the book to make it look like a joke book.  
>Hopefully this would lead her off the scent. Jiraiya may write the books but he was stern about keeping it from children, particular this child.<p>

"Those are funny!" Nora giggled. Inwardly she was sighing. He shouldn't underestimate her. This close to him, she could sense the minute chakra spike that meant he had hidden the true text.  
>She hated when people did this, but she did love a challenge. By hell and high water she'd figure out what was really in Kakashi-san's book.<p>

Nora settled under her covers, pulling her doll close and closing her eyes. A half hour later she heard Kakashi come in to check on her.  
>She kept her breathing slow and even, just like Jiraiya-jiji had taught her. He left right after, not like jiji, who sometimes stayed for a few minutes, just watching.<p>

The next day she got up, ready for the academy and made herself a bento. Remembering Kakashi-san, she made some coffee to and left it out for him.  
>As she walked to the academy, she couldn't help but wonder why Jiraiya-jiji trusted this guy to watch after her.<p>

She knew that he was pretty picky about people around her, even her friend Kiba he didn't immediatly approve of.  
>She guessed this is what if felt like to have an over-protective father, but couldn't be certain. He acted more like the fun grandpa's she saw buying their grandkids candy and toys.<p>

She certainly had enough stuffed animals to attest to that theory.

Sitting in her seat next to the stoic but beautiful Hikari and the happy-go-lucky though intellectually impaired Inomaru, she listened to the amazingly long lecture from Iruka-sensei. Now if only it was interesting enough not to nearly knock her out every five minutes.

'Sensei should just lecture his enemies unconcious, they'd be easier to kill and he'd be unstoppable.' She recalled thinking at the time.

"Alright class, now today we'll be learning with shuriken and kunai." Iruka announced after the history class was over.

Nora grinned as she thought that finally, something interesting, was going to happen. She was dissappointed to learn the 'shuriken' and 'kunai' were made of paper.  
>She spent ten minutes with Iruka-sensei merely positioning her fingers to show how to hold it correctly.<p>

After they had finished and just let the kids get used to holding them normally, she had enough.

"Okay, I'm done learning how to hold a paper shuriken." She announced.

"May I please at least throw it at something?" She asked as politely as she possibly could.

"We're getting to that Nora, now we'll be showing you the proper stances to throw the weapons." Iruka announced, his good spirits undaunted.

Nora raised an eyebrow, lifted her hand, and flicked it in the direction of his hitaite. It hit dead center before falling to the ground.

"What's the point of showing us how to stand when we throw when we all have our own ways of doing something?" She asked curiously.

"It's part of the curriculum." Iruka said, picking up the shuriken and placing it back in her hand.

"Do you use the same methods?" She asked him suspiciously.

Iruka was about to answer when he realized that, no, he'd never really had a use for the academy throwing style.  
>He had to admit, to his pillow late at night, the kid had a point.<p>

"So long as we hit the target, I see no point in worrying if my finger is a little off center or if I need to fling my arms around in a ridiculus and showy method." She said wisely.

"So thanks sensei, but I don't think this is really useful." Iruka knew it was going to be hard to teach her, he just never thought he'd be the one learning instead.

END OF THE CHAPTER SO NOW LEAVE AND COME BACK ANOTHER TIME!

LC; Okay, now that was a good chapter.

Naruto; Are those two going to be her teammates?

LC; Maybe. It's complicated.

Sasuke; Let's get out of here.


	3. Friends

LC; Welcome back to the next generation of Sannin!

Naruto; Welcome to Legacy: Next Generation!

Sasuke; Which is not a "Their kids" fic. Just a next sannin fic.

Naruto; She won't do those kinds of fics for some reason.

LC; I have my reasons, but they are mine...Not yours...Mine.

Naruto; Whatever you say LC...No one's forcing you to make one.

LC; This fic is a dedication fic for my friend, Irish Shift's, friend who apparently liked my work but died.

Naruto;...He died in the line of duty. His name will forever be engraved on the monument.

Sasuke; Can we just get to the story already?

LC; Insensitive emo.

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of that cool stuff. I wish I did, but I don't...*Sigh*

Chapter 3: Friend.

It was red. It was looming over her. It had long ears, reminding her of a rabbit. It squeeked when she hugged it. It was a giant fox plushy twice her size.

"Jiraiya-jiji it's huge!" She cried, trying to wrap her little arms around the toy's circumphrence.

"Is that okay?" Jiraiya asked nervously. He couldn't tell if she liked it or not.

He got his answer when she climbed on it's back and began imagining it running over a battlefield with her fighting from it's back.  
>He left her in her room to play with her toys, making them the numerous soldiers she fought in her search for world peace, as she put it.<p>

Nora played with the giant fox plushie for a couple hours before getting hungry and going to the kitchen for a sandwhich.  
>She found Jiraiya-jiji talking to a young woman with long black hair and a jounin vest.<p>

"She can be pretty quiet at first but get to know her and she'll talk your ear off." Jiraiya was saying. He disliked it but he was being sent on another information gathering mission and had to leave Nora with another sitter.  
>His first option would be Kakashi but that man was out on another ANBU mission as well and wouldn't be back for two more weeks.<p>

Hence, he had called in miss Kurenai.

"She might ask for help with her homework but normally she has a pretty good handle on it. If she asks you to play with her, your golden. She didn't ask me for almost a week after we met." He joked.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she stays safe and goes to school on time. This mission is important and I'm sure she knows it too." The young woman said. Neither noticed the little red head poking her head through the door.

"Oh and just a warning, she is the prankster from hell and unless you want to end up having to clean up a huge mess try not to get wrangled into a game of hide and seek." He warned her.

"Uh, duly noted." Kurenai assured him.

"Nora-chan, come in to meet your new baby sitter for the next few days." Jiraiya said suddenly, gesturing to her 'hiding place'.

Hesitantly at first, the red haired girl moved into full sight of the door. She returned a small smile to the black haired woman before her and thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad.  
>She politely greeted the woman and said good bye to Jiraiya-jiji before retreating to her room again to play some more.<p>

Kurenai stayed in the living room and watched some tv. Would it be inappropriate of her to invite Asuma over with a small child in the next room?

The days passed with a surprising swiftness and before she knew it the year had ended and summer begun. Suddenly her days were free and her's alone, and she was incredibly bored.  
>She couldn't pull pranks on any of the villager's, she still had to restock on supplies.<br>She most definitely was not going to go to the park today since only the fangirls were there for their monthly meeting. She wanted to be as far from that as possible.

"Jiraiya-jiji is out of the village and left me with Asuma-nii again." She mumbled to herself, walking down the dirt paved road. She couldn't wait until she learned how to jump from roof to roof like the real ninja, it looked like fun.

"Yo Nora wait up!" Nora stopped on her trek and turned to see her friend Kiba running over. She instantly smiled and high fived the over-enthusiastic boy.

"How's the ninja academy?" He was really jealous since he couldn't join yet but from what he heard from Nora he was hoping he'd be ready when he did.

"It's the same old but now it's summer so's I got nothing to do." She sighed extravagantly. She and Kiba weren't supposed to play together, but Kiba didn't care, and it wasn't like his mom could watch him all the time.

"Well we can meet up and play a whole lot more now so that's good!" Kiba said undaunted.

Later, after Kiba had gone home, Nora made her way through an alley she used as a shortcut to her apartment.  
>It was getting dark out and she knew that Asuma-nii was probably worried about her. She picked up the pace nervously and eyed the shadows with trepidition.<p>

"A ninja isn't afraid of the shadows." She repeated under her breath, trying to draw courage from the saying. Never before had she been afraid of the dark.

She got home and almost slammed the door behind her. Wincing at the noise, she tried to see if Asuma had heard while she caught her breath.  
>He didn't.<p>

Nora ate the same amount as she normally did and made sure to act normally around Asuma. She knew that if he or any of her other 'guardians' really put up their guard around her that he would have seen through her act in an instant.  
>The thing is though, people underestimate kids. Even the ones training to be killers.<p>

Alone in her room late that night, she gazed out her window down at the street below. She couldn't see anything except the little square of light her window shed, but that didn't bother her. For some reaosn that nervousness of earlier had completely dissipated.  
>She just couldn't make sense of it.<p>

"I'm glad I don't got classes in the morning anymore." She sighed after catching a glimpse of the clock hanging on her wall. If so she'd be dead to the world as soon as she sat down at her desk after staying up so late.

Nora collapsed onto her covers and let herself fall to the chasm of dreams in no time at all. For now her peaceful sleep would not be bothered, and somehow she cherished it. Like it was some kind of rare treat that soon would run out.

Over the next few days Nora felt again that strange prickling sensation. It got so bad that she began taking different routes home everyday in an attempt to make the feeling go away.  
>She always knew how it began, with the hairs along her neck standing on end. She felt like someone was watching her. She would strain her ears to try and catch something, the sound of footsteps, some breathing, anything. She wouldn't get a single sound.<p>

Whenever this feeling came she always sought out one of her guardians, in order to try and deter whoever was causing this feeling.  
>So far none had bothered asking why she wanted to play with them all so much. They took it as a good sign that she now trusted them enough to play with them.<p>

Half the summer had come and gone and Nora was at her wit's end with her new stalker. She had actually grown used to the 'being watched' feeling.  
>Again she felt the prickling at the back of her neck and surveyed her area, the park, for any watchers. All around her was clear land, no where for anyone to hide, but she still didn't see anyone.<p>

"Nora, something wrong?" She reassured her friend and went back to helping him build a sand castle.

"Kiba!" Nora winced as she watched an angry Tsume walk up the steps to the park and stand a few feet away, glowering down at her son.

"U-Uh, mom." Kiba stammered. Today he had snuck out of his room, which he was meant to be cleaning, so he could play with Nora.

"Young man your supposed to be cleaning your room! Let's go pup!" Tsume barked, grabbing her son by one ear and dragging him away. Nora couldn't help but sigh in relief that Tsume's anger hadn't been directed at her.

Nora went home, this time to Jiraiya-jiji, who was home today. She stretched and yawned in the safety of her room and again felt that prickling sensation.  
>Looking suspiciously at the mountain of stuffed toys in her room, she walked to her open window.<p>

"You know, I could'a sworn I closed this before I left, and my foxie-chan was sitting on the foot of my bed." She muttered. She closed it again. There, she could pin-point the presence in her room.  
>Someone was hiding in her bedroom.<p>

Sweat gathered on her palms as she made sure her back was kept to the door. She was only a little kid, she couldn't take a grown ninja if she tried!  
>Her only hope was that Jiraiya-jiji would hear her if she screamed.<p>

"Who's there?" They weren't in the stuffed animal mountain, she didn't get the feeling from there. Slowly, she turned her head from side to side, trying to get a lock on his hiding place.

"You've been watching me for a while, following me outside. Now your in my bedroom, creepy." She muttered. She checked off the bed and closet, he wasn't in those places.  
>Nor in the shadows by the bookshelf, or the one at the desk.<p>

"Where are you?" She asked aloud, not expecting an answer.

There was a sudden breeze from the reopened window and she ran over with hopes of glimpsing her stalker. No such luck.  
>The feeling was gone.<p>

For the rest of the summer she was able to relax and train, waiting for when the second year at the ninja academy would start.  
>Sometimes she would see Inomaru, but normally she was on her own. She had taken to trying to make her body as flexible as possible. She had gotten the idea that if she couldn't stay out of his reach, she could wiggle out.<p>

Hence the reason she was practicing her upside down splits at the park while her friend Kiba watched.

"Doesn't that hurt?" He asked, watching her keep her legs perfectly straight as her arms shook with the pressure.

"Yes." Nora grunted. And it did, but she felt a kind of satisfaction from that pain. It meant she was actually doing something right.  
>She was five years old in one month and this had been the best year of her life. She hoped the next year would be just as good if not better than this one.<p>

Jiraiya watched from a park bench. At the moment he was working on his next book, ICHA ICHA Paradise, which was sure to be as big a success as ICHA ICHA Violence.  
>So far he had gotten to the middle of the book, and he couldn't wait to do a little more research to finish it.<p>

He sighed to himself. He knew the only reason he wasn't at the hot springs right now was because of Nora-chan. He didn't want to leave her alone this close to her birthday. Too many villager's were giving her the evil eye, in his own fair opinion.

He looked over to where the kid was standing on her hands and began to think along a different trail.  
>Her flexibility training was something most kunoichi did, but for her age she was much better at it than some genin. What if he could get her a style that would use her flexibility to it's fullest?<p>

He'd have to think more on it later, for now it was time he got the kid home, fed, bathed, and into bed. Ugh, the life of a parent.  
>When he glimpsed Nora laughing with her friend, he guessed it was all just a part of being a parent, or in his case, godparent.<p>

Jiraiya groaned again as he suddenly felt his forty six years.

"Jiraiya-jiji classes start tomorrow, do you think I can keep up?" Nora asked him as she skipped next to him on their way home.

"With the way you've been training you'll leave those eight year olds in the dust!" He boasted, laughing boisterously. He believed it too. She had kept up at a reasonable grade, and with how much she had improved over the summer he believed she could pass with no trouble.

The next day she showed up for her second year at the shinobi academy, armed with pencil, paper, and her usual up-beat attitude.  
>She met Inomaru at their new classroom, where the second year students would be learning again from Iruka-sensei.<p>

Now they would learn to use real weapons, throwing to hit the target, and theory on some academy ranked ninjutsu.  
>Hopefully it would be more interesting than last year's classes. Those were as like to put her to sleep than teach her anything. She wouldn't retake those if you paid her a hundred ryo.<p>

"Nora Uzumaki?" She called out her presence and noted that many kids, other than Inomaru, were scoffing and avoiding her.  
>It seemed they still didn't expect much from her, but she'd win them over, given time. Someday she really would be hokage!<p>

When class let out for lunch, Nora went about her normal stretching regime, trying to limber up after being seated at a desk all day.  
>She had almost forgotten how boring sitting still was. It was much more interesting when things were in motion.<p>

'Which,' She reminded herself. 'Is exactly what I intend to do, put things in motion!' She had already decided and nothing was going to stop her!

"Nora, doesn't that hurt?" Why did people keep asking her that? It didn't even hurt that much, but everyone thought it was painful.

"Excruciating." Nora deadpanned, moving from her splits to one leg up one down. Then she removed one hand, standing solely on her left one.

Deep beneath Konoha, a man walked down a long, dark corridor. His walk was hunched, and the sharp clang of a metal cane hitting the concrete echoed with each step.  
>One eye was covered with bandages, and his arm was covered and bound to a sling. His eyes were narrowed to slits.<p>

"Danzo-sama, she has a future as a sensor type. She was always able to sense when she was being tailed." He had ordered one of his men to keep an eye on an interesting prospect of his, and so far it seemed it was paying off.

"Subtly begin boosting her training past that of her peers. She's going to be quite useful if we play our cards right." He instructed. Simply by making her feel as though she were in danger, she would be compelled to work harder to improve.  
>By the time their seirveillence had ended she had been able to almost pinpoint where his Ne were hiding. Promise indeed.<p>

Jiraiya walked through the shinobi library, taijutsu styles, looking for one that could take advantage of Nora's flexibility.  
>So far he had found a couple styles but nothing really suited her. He was about to call it a night and head home to meet Nora but he ended up picking up one last scroll.<p>

"Inner Ruin style?" He read. On the off chance, he opened it, to read about the style's background. After a minute of reading, his face split in a grin and he checked it out of the library and headed home.  
>It looked like he and Nora had some training to do and he wanted to get a head start.<p>

When Jiraiya found Nora asleep with her head lying on her homework in the kitchen. He chuckled lightly to himself before picking her up and carrying her to bed.  
>He could always show her the scroll tomorrow.<p>

The next day, Nora went to class. Today they would be seeing about using actual weapons, not the stupid paper machet ones of last year.  
>She was to be solely dissappointed come next period.<p>

"Alright class, today we'll be learning how to throw weapons like Kunai and Shuriken, the primary weapons of shinobi." Iruka informed them, holding real deal examples. Cue Nora smiling in anticipation.

"Of course you will be using training weapons, which are made purposely dull so as not to accidently injure yourselves." He quickly added. Cue loud thunk of Nora's forehead becoming intimitely aquainted with her desk.

"Follow me to the training area and we'll get started." Iruka instructed. He could understand her eagerness to move up a level, but her obsession with the sharp and pointy objects of the trade was a little unsettling. Reminded him too much of Anko, and one lovely crazy lady was enough in his life.

By the end of the class, only Nora had managed to hit all the targets, though a few were close to getting one or two.

"H-How?" Inomaru stammered. Here he thought he knew a girl and she ended up showing him up like nobody's business.

"Jiraiya-jiji taught me how to do that forever ago!" She moaned. She wanted to learn something new and useful, not something she could almost do with her eyes closed.

"Jiraiya-jiji?" There was only one man Iruka knew of who was named Jiraiya, and he didn't seem like the kind of person to allow a little girl to call him jiji.  
>Although, he guessed at this point he really shouldn't have been surprised. Nora always pulled something like this and there had been rumors floating around that the sannin had befriended her. Or as the villager's were putting it, the sannin was keeping her under control.<p>

Inomaru shook his head at his friend's antics before he caught some whispered words from a group of boys to the right.

"She thinks she's so cool, but my mom said she was a total monster. We should show her not to show us up again." His eyes widened in shock and he looked over to Nora, who was now sitting in the shade, twirling a kunai around her finger.

'A monster, Nora? What kind of weed are they smoking?' It almost made him want to laugh, if it wasn't that he had heard the same thing from his own parents.  
>For some reason, not many people liked her. In fact, now that he thought about it, no one seemed to like her.<p>

The days passed in blurs of class and a haze of training and sweat. Days turned to weeks, and those to months, her birthday came and went.  
>As time flew by, she trained harder and harder on everything she could. When she hit a road block, she went to Jiraiya-jiji or another guardian for tips.<p>

It always paid off.

When she couldn't do the clone, Kakashi-nii taught her to climb trees. When she had glimpsed a ninja walking along the river, on top of the water, she had convinced Kurenai-nee to teach her to water walk.  
>She even learned a couple low level jutsu used for survival. Things like minor earth jutsu to cover tracks, or water jutsu to fill a canteen from water of the air. Useful stuff.<p>

Days came and went, and by the time she reached seven, entering her third year, she thought she had a decent handle on anything the academy could toss her way.  
>And that is of course when life went down the tube.<p>

She'd never had a close relationship with Hikari per say, but she was a friend. They talked and trained together. She helped Hikari unlock her sharingan.  
>Then the massacre happened.<p>

END OF CHAPTER FINALLY! TOOK ME FOREVER TO FINISH! I'M LOSING MY TOUCH!

LC; Geez, I feel like that took forever!

Naruto; It did. Normally it only takes a couple days to write a chap.

Sasuke; You aren't still fried for ideas are you?

LC; It's not so much the ideas as the insane amount of other stuff to do. There's reading fanfiction, watching anime, reading manga, listening to music. So much to do, so little time.

Naruto; You need to get your eye on the ball before your fans tear you to shreds.

LC; Gomenasai! I'll try to be faster next time! Please don't kill me!


	4. Betrayals

LC; Time to update again and I'm determinned to do it faster this time!

Naruto; Yeah, she's really excited to have finally caught up with all her work.

LC; Yep! No more near misses on dead lines! I'm free!

Sasuke; So long as she can keep up with 14 active stories at once.

LC;...There is that...But I'm coping!

Naruto; Don't depress her! She'll write angsty stuff about us!

Sasuke; Like I care dobe.

LC;...Actually I was planning the angst of this chap since the last one. Remember?

Sasuke; Oh yeah, your writing about the massacre now.

Naruto; Can't you skip that?

LC; No, it's an important milestone in Konoha's history!

Sasuke; Cause my clan was wronged. *Whimpers*

LC; Gah! A Kishimoto's Sasuke! Damnit! Man up!

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto. Nope, not at all. Please forward all complaints on the sucky turn the series has taken to Kishimoto.

Chapter 4; Fight

It was rare that Hikari was able to come over to Nora's house and hang out. Tonight though Hikari had managed to wrangle permission from her parents and had showed up to play around and be the kid she was.

Sure, there was a pretty big gap in their ages, but they had enough similar interests to gangway that.

"Why do you have so many stuff animals?" Hikari asked, almost being smothered by the plushies of death.

"Every time Jiraiya-jiji goes on a mission he brings back one toy per village he visited. He's always doing weird stuff like that!" Nora giggled, hugging her foxie-chan close. It was nice to have a friend like Hikari.

_At the Uchiha District._

Itachi looked over his handy work, including his younger brother passed out on the ground. He wiped away his tears and went through a mental check list of the ones he'd taken down. There was one missing.

"Hikari, where are you at this time of night?" Unfortunatly he couldn't search the village for her, he had to escape before any ANBU showed up.  
>Oh well, she hadn't graduated the academy yet and hadn't been in on the plans. He'd just ignore her, for now.<p>

_Next day, Hokage tower._

"Y-Your kidding." The young female Uchiha was stunned. Beside her stood her mute cousin, Sasuke. She'd just been informed that save them, all the Uchiha had been murdered.  
>By her other cousin, Itachi.<p>

"But, that's impossible! Even Itachi couldn't take them all out without anyone noticing!" She shouted desperatly. This had to be a trick, a bad prank!

Sarutobi inwardly winced as he saw the suspicious and heart broken eyes of the two children. Sasuke looked surprised that he hadn't thought of something like that. His brother was strong, but not _that_ strong.

Hikari went back to class and told her friend everything that had happened the next day. For the moment she was the acting clan head until Sasuke became of age.  
>It was a lot to take in for a eleven year old girl.<p>

Nora listened quietly to her friend's explanation. Something about this bugged her and she had to find something to do about it.  
>At the moment, it was lunch time, and they were free to do as they liked until classes started up again.<p>

"Hikari, what are you going to do about this?" She finally asked.

"I just don't know. I know I should try to get revenge for my clan but as it stands I'm nowhere near the strength level I need to be for that." Hikari said calmly. It was a cruel fact, but a fact nonetheless.

"Let's spar then." Nora suggested, jumping to her feet and getting into the Inner Ruin fighting style stance. Over the last year and a half Jiraiya-jiji had been helping her learn the moves from the scroll.  
>Well, moves was a bit of an overstatement.<p>

The scroll was more or less telling someone that they had to first find out how the human body reacted to what it perceived as threats, and from there, using basic moves to disable and kill any oponents one faced.  
>This style was most affective when used in tantem of poisoned weapons and a good knowledge of the human body and it's weakpoints.<p>

Basically it was a lot of studying for a taijutsu style.

"We have one year before we graduate, we have a lot of training to do to get where we need to be." Nora said seriously after their rather short battle. Freakish stamina she may have, but heavy punches Hikari threw.

From then on the two girls pushed eachother, sometimes training with Inomaru as well. The three learned eachother's moves inside and out, until they worked like a well oiled machine even when seperated by a sea of bodies, their classmates.

Their third year passed with little other excitement, but their skills grew every day. Hikari mastered two more C-ranked katon jutsu, and one B-ranked one.  
>Nora had also learned a C-ranked katon jutsu, the fireball technique. Other than that she had learned two C-ranked fuin jutsu. Inomaru had learned two of his clan's techniques, and though it went against tradition and had weaseled a suiton jutsu out of the library's confines.<p>

At the beginning of their fourth year, Nora met the people who were Kiba's classmates.  
>Kiba had introduced her to them sometime during the summer, when they had all been at the park by some coincidence.<p>

Sasuke she had already met through Hikari and she considered to be a psuedo-training partner for whenever Hikari was busy doing clan head duties. He had yet to unlock his sharingan though.  
>Sakura was a no name fangirl, who Nora considered idiotic and weak. Ino, although related to Inomaru, was nothing like him and was again, a fangirl.<p>

Hinata Hyuga was quiet but Nora had managed to spar with her a couple times. The byakugan was rather interesting. Shikamaru and Choji were interesting and nice to hang out with when she had to relax.  
>Shino Aburame was quiet but he was nice enough if one got past his cold looking exterior.<p>

All in all, most of them seemed like nice enough guys that she could see herself, in another lifetime, becoming close friends with.  
>But in this life, she had different priorities. Helping Hikari get her revenge and becoming hokage took precedence over things like that. She couldn't think about 'what ifs'.<p>

"Nora, what do you think about the academy?" Inomaru asked one day, seemingly out of the blue.

"I honestly think it's too lax. Even for peacetime." She answered through a rice ball she had made that morning. Ugh, maybe there was a good reason rice balls were made with salt rather than sugar. One would think they'd taste sweeter with sugar!

"One day I think I want to be on the council, and be one of the people who decide what to teach her. With the things taught here, I hardly feel ready to take on bandits let alone other ninja." Inomaru confided.

"When I'm hokage I'll see about stepping up the program and we can plan new lessons together!" Nora said cheerfully. Beside them Hikari smiled and shook her head. Trust them to think that the academy was boring and too easy where most struggled to keep up.

"Nora, your a child prodigy, of course you think it's easy." She interjected.

"Other, normal people, tend to struggle with the curiculum as it is." So that conversation died and led to a companionable silence.

"Hey you guys, who's team do you think we'll all be on?" Nora asked. They worked well together, and were at the top three spots at the class, but that didn't mean they'd be on the same team. It actually meant they'd all be on different ones.

"Sadly, as a Yamanaka, I'll probably be on a team with Chona Akimichi and Shikato Nara. It's tradition." The last was spat out, like a bitter taste left behind by medicine.

"I'm at the top rank of the class, rookie of the year, that means I'll be paired up with Tomake Ishiju, the dead last, and Irona Morijana, the middle kunoichi." Hikari reasoned out.

"Damn, it's hard to tell who I'll be with." Nora muttered. She could be paired with a couple lower ranked students due to her grade and age. Question was, which lower ranked students?

"Well, we won't know for sure until after the graduation exam." Hikari assured her reasonably.

Inomaru walked home with only his shadow as company after school ended for the day. Ever since meeting Nora, he had tried to figure out why she was hated by so many.  
>It seemed almost impossible to hate her after meeting the young fire head for any length of time.<p>

He'd overheard conversations, things about Nora being a monster and being 'controlled' by one of the sannin. He had met Jiraiya, and the day that man tried to control the loveable girl was the day the hokage mountains came to life and began to eat everyone.

Tonight he was planning something very risky, if he was caught. With his Mind Body Switch jutsu he could dwelve into the minds of any old drunk and find out what he wanted to know.  
>He'd clear the memories of his trip after he got what he wanted. And now it's time to set about his plans.<p>

Inomaru slowed his walk when he saw a trio of drunks slowly making their way home. He watched them seperate and went after the one who took the left road, down an alley.  
>He watched the man squat down and empty his stomach as his hands crafted the needed signs.<p>

"Mind Body Switch Jutsu." He muttered quietly, casting his technique towards the stationary middle aged man.

Both bodies slumped to the ground and none were the wiser. Inwardly, Inomaru pushed aside memories until he found the info he was looking for.  
>He had basically just looked for anything involving Nora Uzumaki, and the results were surprising.<p>

_Memory Viewing no Jutsu!_

Inomaru found himself in a transparent form staring up at the hokage tower, where he could see the Sandaime standing, holding a bundle.

"Konoha, it is my deep sadness to inform you that your Yondaime, Minato Namikaze, perished defeating the Kyubi no Kitsune this day." Disbelief and grief crept through the crowd, only silence when the aged kage lifted his hand.

"To defeat the demon he sealed it away, into one young enough to handle the chakra without dying. He seald it away, inside a newborn baby girl, Nora Uzumaki." Inomaru didn't see or hear anything else as his frozen disbelief and horror petrified him. He canceled the jutsu and returned to his body and began running.

_Memory Viewing no jutsu! Kai!_

He returned home, ran to his bedroom, and locked the door behind him.

"The Kyubi no Kitsune, is inside Nora?" He almost couldn't believe it. but he had seen the memories, and now it all made sense. Why she was an orphan, why she was hated, why she must have had to enroll early. They were probably planning on using her as a weapon. It also explained her healing abilities and large chakra reserve!

Inomaru sank to the ground, leaning against his door, and ran a hand through his hair. What should he do about this now that he knew? Tell Nora? Or did she already know? But, how could she? He hadn't known, and he was certain none of their classmates knew either!

"So does that mean, no one who doesn't remember that day knows?" He mumbled to himself, pushing his face into his hands and trying to calm the storm of his mind.

"Should I treat her like always?" He wondered. Act like he didn't know, had never found out. But, honestly what if he wasn't able to do it? Lots of his clansmen had died against that monster, and he had always thought of the Kyubi like some monster under the bed.  
>Could he really treat his friend the same after finding out she housed the thing that haunted his nightmares?<p>

"I was what, three when the demon attacked? Is that day in my memories?" He asked himself. Steeling his courage, he delved into his own mind to find the answers.

_Memory Viewing no jutsu!_

The vision was slightly distorted, a three year old's mind wasn't as focused as an adult's. He could however see and hear everything he had to, so it didn't matter.

He went to the place where he had cut off last time. He wanted to find out how the villagers had reacted.

"Kill it!" He gasped in shock.

"Kill the demon!" "Finish what Yondaime-sama started!" "Slit it's throat!" Time after time, death threats were shouted to the aged kage and in that moment Sarutobi looked older than Inomaru had ever seen him.

"Silence!" And here he could feel an insane amount of bloodlust, and he knew this is what a shinobi was. This was KI, Killing Intent.

"This child is not the demon but it's jailor! I will not have any of you fighting to end this girl's life!" He yelled over the squaller, stunning many. They had forgotten what an angry kage looked like.

"From this day forth I am instating a new law. It is forbidden to speak of this day to any who do not already know. The punishment for breaking this law, is imidiate death." With that he turned his back on the crowd and carried the infant elsewhere.

_Memory Viewing no Jutsu! Kai!_

Inomaru had seen all he had to, and so he cancelled his jutsu and woke in his room. That night, he couldn't sleep. Everytime he closed his eyes, he would picture Nora turning into the demon she held.  
>He still didn't know how he was going to act tomorrow. Only that he wished he had never stuck his nose where it didn't belong.<p>

Despite his nervousness, he at least managed to go about his days without suspicoun. It eventually got to the point that he could sometimes forget what he had learned. Then later, on those days, he would be lying in bed thinking about the fun he had only to recall that night he learned everything.

Nora and Hikari had noticed a change in their friend's demeanor. Suddenly Inomaru took every excuse to keep Hikari between him and Nora. Suddenly he no longer had time to train with them all the time, as before.  
>He was withdrawn, and nervous all the time. He didn't like being alone with Nora. It was driving the two girls crazy trying to figure out what was wrong.<p>

"Do you think I did something to make him angry?" Nora asked over their lunch. Inomaru had stayed inside, claiming he didn't feel up to eating outside in the cold. Winters were never cold in the land of fire.

"I don't know. I can't remember you doing anything offensive." Hikari replied. It really was a mystery. If they didn't find the answer soon they would just have to confront him about it.

Nora hoped she hadn't somehow lost one of her only friends.

Jiraiya noticed a change in the normally bubbly red head and grew worried. She went about her training half heartedly, as though her mind was somewhere else.

"Hey Nora-chan, what's wrong?" He asked her after training that day. They were drinking some hot cocoa, since the wind and the rain had chilled their bones during training.

"Inomaru is acting really strange and avoiding me. I don't know why." She told her grandfather figure.

"Hmm, have you tried asking him?" Jiraiya for once never considered the thought of the boy thinking about his Nora-chan that way. In his mind Nora was too young to attract any boys yet. He'd start worrying after Nora grew boobs.

"No, me and Hikari were trying to think if I did anything that made him mad first." She admitted. She decided to talk to him tomorrow. She missed her friend.

The next morning she put her hair up in a bun and put on her bandana, ready to ask her friend what she did wrong and possibly beg forgiveness.  
>What if she had accidently insulted his clan without realizing it? Or what if he was angry because she beat him in a spar? Or was it because they wouldn't be on the same team?<p>

"Inomaru, are you angry at me?" She asked him as soon as they had a minute alone. Nora had decided to come inside during lunch to talk to him.

"Uh, of course not." The boy protested. He had tried acting normal, but obviously it wasn't working.

"I'm not mad at you." He answered, not looking her directly in the eye.

"Please, just tell me what I did wrong and I'll apologize! I miss my friend!" Nora pleaded, not reassured by his body language.

"I'm not angry, so just drop it!" The older boy snapped, pushing the younger whisker cheeked girl back. Nora stumbled and fell on her rear as a result of the push.

Inomaru winced as he saw Nora try to hide tears and desperatly tried to think of something. He was just, too afraid to be around her anymore. He needed to be left alone. Even though it hurt, he couldn't be around that monster!

"I'm not angry, I just don't want to hang out with you anymore." He muttered, loud enough for her to hear, quiet enough so he could deny them to himself later.

Nora lost control and let the tears fall before running outside the room. She ran past the surprised Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei, through a crowd of children, all the way to the tree where Hikari was waiting.  
>Hikari herself was stunned when Nora threw herself into the Uchiha's arms, sobbing about how Inomaru didn't want to be her friend anymore.<p>

That day, Inomaru moved ahead of Itachi on the 'People I must kill' list in Hikari's mind.

Nora then threw herself into her training again, eager to get stronger as always. Today had showed her how easy it was for a friend to decide they didn't like you anymore. She didn't want to lose Hikari too!  
>She had to make sure that she was the best at what Hikari needed her to be! A sparring partner.<p>

Jiraiya saw the newest change in the whiskered girls demeanor and made a mental note to 'talk' with that Inomaru boy. No stupid boy hurt his Nora-chan and got away with it, damnit!  
>Fuming with his plans to destroy what made that little boy a little boy, he didn't notice when Nora finished her training regimen and then kept going. Like a freight train that had broken brakes. It had forgotten how to stop.<p>

END OF THE CHAPTER SO NOW YOU REVIEW AND THEN LEAVE THESE HALLOWED HALLS!

LC; Well that was a fun chapter to write!

Naruto; Fun?

Sasuke; You said it would be angsty and boy were you right.

LC; Yeah, I surprised myself a li-!...Did you just call me a boy?

Sasuke; Why?

LC; *Digs out rusty spoon*

Sasuke; Um, *Gulp*

LC; Come to the hallway with me for a minute Sasuke. I'll have you singing castrato in no time.


	5. recessions

LC; Welcome back to more about Nora-chwan!

Naruto; Why are you saying chwan instead of chan?

LC; I recently got into One Piece, and Sanji calls my fav girl Robin, Robin-chwan!

Sasuke; So your emulating this Robin character by calling your character Nora-chwan?

LC; You catch on fast don't'cha? *Asks with raised brow*

Sasuke; Yeah, yeah I do. *Glares moch five glare*

LC; *Sneers before activating moch 3.14 glare* (Known as pie, idiots)

Sasuke; *Pales before fainting.*

Naruto; A battle of the scowls, scary.

LC; That was fun! We should do it again sometime!

Naruto; *Sees her looking at him challengingly* Um...*Gulp*

LC; Oooohhh Naru-chwan!

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or One Piece! Why would you think someone as lowly as me would own anything as awesome as either as those?

Chapter 5; kouhai

Inomaru stopped hanging out with them at all, and Hikari was forced to become more and more distant as more clan head duties piled up for her to see to.  
>Sometimes she would be exhausted, and simply have no time to spar or even hang out with Nora. Nora understood that, but it still hurt whenever Hikari was forced to turn down an offer.<p>

Jiraiya did his best to be there for his little gaki, but he often found himself leaving the village to speak with his spies and other informants.  
>After all, this Akutsuki looked like a big threat to Nora and others like her.<p>

Many times, Nora was left mostly alone, save her babysitters and the stalker who had returned to torment her.

Seriously, who the heck was following her!

Turning quickly from where she was walking down the streets, she mentally cursed as the presence dodged her gaze again.  
>Being followed by Kono-chan could be bad enough, but now she had her old shadow back. The feeling of being followed was becoming so common placed now she wondered if she'd ever feel comfortable being completely alone again.<p>

Nora shook her head before turning back down the street, picking up the pace to make up for the pause. She needed to hurry or she'd be late for class.  
>Iruka-sensei would give her eraser duty if that happened!<p>

Through the school day she listened as they reviewed the things that they would need to know for the genin exam. The year was almost finished, in two more days she'd graduate and be a real kunoichi, not just a kid playing pretend.  
>She exhaled slowly as she thought of what she'd do after getting that headband.<p>

Graduating at her age wasn't bad, eight years old and a genin would look good on her resume. No, what annoyed her about graduating was the fact she'd have even less time for her one remaining friend and vice versa.

"If I'm going to be hokage I'll need to train more." She finally sighed, following the remaining students out the door as the final bell resognated through the halls.  
>Ahead of her, she caught the sight of Inomaru's platinum blonde hair and inwardly cringed. Why had Inomaru, someone she thought she could trust, betrayed her so badly? It didn't make any sense to her childish mind, but she tried not to dwell on it. It only hurt more.<p>

_Two Days Later, Classroom._

"Nora Uzumaki, your up!" Iruka called from the next room. This was the it, the big deciding point in her life that would decide how she would live for the rest of her life!

Chuckling slightly before pushing the melodramatic thoughts out of her head, she followed her sensei to the next room to take her ninjutsu portion of her test.  
>She had already passed taijutsu, genjutsu, and throwing weapons. Even if she flunked this she would pass.<p>

"Alright, use the Kawarmi, Henge, and Bunshin no jutsu to pass." Mizuki instructed her. Nora ignored the look in his eyes and did as asked.  
>The first two were easy but she paused before doing the bunshin. Jiraiya-jiji told her that she put too much chakra in trying to make only a couple clones, she decided to try for more than a few. A dozen sounded about right.<p>

"Congratulationgs Nora, your officially a genin." Iruka-sensei smiled and handed her the hitaite, before pushing her out the door and calling for the next kid.  
>She sat down next to Hikari and thought on some important matters. For instance, where should she put her hitaite?<p>

On the forehead seemed too done, the waist made her think she'd look queer, and the arm would be complicated to tie on everyday, not to mention annoying.  
>The neck sounded alright, but she didn't really want to because it made it seem like the hitaite was a necklace or something!<p>

Eventually she decided to turn her bandana into a kercheif around her neck and use the hitaite's extra cloth to turn it into a new bandana.  
>At least now she looked cool and still had her lucky bandana!<p>

"Team one will be..." She sort of zoned out, only listening for her name.

"Team seven will be Nora Uzumaki," Her eyes snapped open and focused on her academy sensei.

"Inomaru Yamanaka, and Hiro Categane." Wait, but she thought for sure Inomaru would be part of the next Ino-shika-cho trio! But he was on her team now?

"Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake. Now, team eight will be." She didn't listen to anything else, except long enough to know Hikari ended up on team thirteen.  
>Inomaru hated her now though, how would they be able to work together on a team?<p>

"Your sensei should be around in a couple of minutes but I have work to do so I can't stay." Iruka apologized before leaving.

Inomaru was debating the shame from his family if he were to turn back in his hitaite and lie about failing versus staying on a team with Nora, the jinchuriki of the Kyubi no Kitsune.  
>He thought ending up on a team with her would be impossible, and he had foolishly hoped that they would never meet after becoming genin ever again.<br>He should have known karma would come back and bite him in the pants. He should never have broken that plant pot and then lied about it to his parents!

Hiro looked over his two teammates, unsure who he should go sit next to. Neither seemed to want to shift places and were resolutely avoiding looking at eachother.

"I wonder why those two don't get along?" He wondered aloud.

"You don't know?" He turned around to see Nami Inuzuka, a girl with a chocolate brown puppy ninken named Kyon.

"Rumor goes they used to be the best of friends back when the squirt first joined our class but they had a big fight sometime last year and now they avoid eachother like fleas and dogs!" She gossiped excitedly.

"It's a shame too though. I saw them practice together with Hikari and they had the best teamwork out of all of us." She sighed before moving on to her teammates, leaving him with the same problem of who to sit with.

"I wonder what happened to them." He sighed before deciding he didn't really need to sit with them. One was just a kid and the other was Inomaru, someone he personally disliked for his womanizing attitude among many of the girls of the class, drawing them away from guys like him. Stupid clan boy.

Kakashi arrived late as usual, and wasn't all that surprised at what he found. He knew Inomaru had stopped being friends with Nora and that she had changed somewhat because of this, so he wasn't surprised that they were as far apart as they could physically get and still be in the same room.  
>The other boy, who's name he didn't remember, was sitting in the middle of the room, just looking between teammates.<p>

"Well, my first impression of you is...I hate you." He had baby sat Nora a few times, but normally he was even busier than Jiraiya, so he didn't even really know her much other than her enjoyment of making a mockery of his awesome ninja skills.

"Are you still angry about the flour?" Nora _eye smiled _at him! She had the audicity to take his signature expression? No mercy.

"Follow me to the roof and we'll begin the introductions." He ordered before making a sign and poofing out of existence. The original would get the message and adjust accordingly before the kids even made it out of the room.

The kids did as he instructed and walked up to see Kakashi standing on the railing. All it would take would be a little push and he would be a grease stain on the ground.  
>Not that Inomaru was thinking of pushing his sensei off a building. Oh no, that would be too obvious. He'd posses Hiro and make <em>him <em>do it.

"Alright, introduce yourselves." Kakashi sighed, not looking up from his little orange book. Which, Nora realized, was the same one he would read on the couch whenever he watched her.

"Why not go first, ne Kakashi-sensei?" Nora quipped. She wasn't really in the mood to joke around, but hey! If he wanted to play that game!

"Alright, my name is Kakashi Hatake. My likes are none of your business and I have some dislikes. My hobbies are a secret. My dream, hmm...never thought about it before." He said.

'All we got was a name?' The three students thought in sync.

"Alright, first up is blondie." Kakashi said, nodding to the Yamanaka.

"I'm Inomaru Yamanaka. My likes are training, working at my family's shop, and mocking tradition. I dislike...err..." He tried to keep from looking at Nora, but his eyes did stray a little.

"Anyway my hobbies are planning out improvments for various things in life and my dream is to become a councilman." He finished heatedly.

"Hmm, alright now. Shorty your up." He eye smiled at Nora.

"I'm Nora Uzumaki! I like training with my friends, ramen, and learning new jutsu! And pranks!" She added, thinking back to when she first met the scarescrow.

"I dislike people who betray your trust and people who judge others without getting to know them. My hobbies are training and reading. My dream is to be hokage!" She finished.

"That leaves me, Hiro Categane. I like reading and hanging out with my friends. I dislike people who act without thinking. My hobbies are reading. My dream is...err...I guess since I'm a ninja I already made that come true." He stated lamely. All in all, to Kakashi's knowledge, the boy was a normal civilian born shinobi. Who probably would drop out of the program at the first hint of trouble.

"Well, now that we're all aquainted we can talk about the real test!" Kakashi paused and reveled in the shocked faces and voices of his little students.

"Oh, you didn't really think that easy little test would let you be real ninja did you? No, the jounin give the actual test. That last one was just to weed out lost causes." He said before taking a piece of paper from a flak jacket pocket and tossing it at them.

"The details are there, and I'll see you at five AM sharp!" He poofed out of existence before going on to read his lovely little porn some more.

After commiting the note to memory, team seven seperated. Nora didn't let herself turn around to watch Inomaru walking away.  
>She had done too much of that and it only hurt more. She had to focus on passing that test so that she could stay a genin! She couldn't be sent back to the academy! It was inconceivable!<p>

Jiraiya wasn't home, but Anko was there to keep her company and help make dinner. After the meal she went straight to sleep. If she had to get up at five in the fricking morning she should get as much sleep as she could possibly get beforehand.

_ROOT HQ_

The ROOT operative who had been on watch duty left his sleeping charge to report to Danzo-sama. He would report the day's findings before returning to his watch until the morning, when he would be relieved by another nameless operative.

"Kakashi Hatake then?" Danzo confirmed with his spy before sending him off. Kakashi had never before accepted a team and this time would be no different, despite his history with one of the members. He was strictly business about his work after all.  
>If Kakashi failed them, the girl would go to the Recession Classes.<p>

That would be the perfect oppurtunity to take her and have her join ROOT. If he could manage that then Konoha would gain a valuable weapon.  
>Soon the entire world would be united under Konoha's emblem!<p>

"Nora Uzumaki, you will dissappear." He chuckled before returning to his nighttime tea.

_Training ground Seven, five AM._

"He's going to be late again isn't he?" Nora sighed upon noticing that five am had come and gone and they were still alone.

"Looks like it." Hiro groaned. He had gotten up at this unholy hour for nothing? Being a ninja was harder than it seemed. He figured he'd be saving princesses and jumping roof to roof in no time but so far no one had even mentioned the possibility!

_Three Hours Later._

"Yo!" Cue frying pan coming out of nowhere and smacking cyclops upside the face.

"That was uncalled for." Kakashi deadpanned.

"You are three hours late. Be happy I didn't booby trap the entire training ground." Nora growled warningly. Not only was she forced to get up at five in the fricking morning, but she was forced to spend three hours in the presence of Inomaru who now seemed to really hate her guts.

He hadn't stopped glaring at her since he started two hours ago!

"Maa, relax Nora, we'll start the test as soon as I explain the particulars." If only those poor genin knew what tragedy would befall them as a result of these words.  
>Perhaps they would not have acted so rashly as to piss of their instructor by hitting him with a frying pan.<p>

_Four Hours Later, End of Test._

"Remind me, why am I the one tied to the pole?" Inomaru asked their sensei. Honestly Kakashi did have high hopes for this team, but they just weren't able to meet the critia. Nora had tried, she tried to get both Hiro and Inomaru to work with her, but neither boy was interested.

In the end no one got a bell and Inomaru, who had broken a cardinal rule in his books, was the one tied to the post.

_Flashback no jutsu!_

"Inomaru, I know you don't want to be my friend, but if we don't work together none of us are going to get a bell!" Nora tried reasoning with the older boy.

"I don't want to work with some_thing_ like you!" Nora gasped and her eyes filled with tears.

"What happened Inomaru? I thought we were friends. What did I do to make you think differenly of me?" She asked, trying to stop herself from crying.

"I'm going to make this clear, alright? I don't like you, and the reason is because your a monster, just like the adults said!" He yelled before running off into the woods for another ill-fated attempt at the bells.

"A monster?" She repeated, falling to her knees and finally letting loose the tears.

Kakashi, who had watched the whole thing, quickly decemated the blonde boy before the alarm went off and he was forced to stop before running damage control.

_Flashback no jutsu kai!_

Hiro's attempts were too pathetic to even think about. The boy had no imagination or common sense, despite his book smarts, and had fallen into a simple noose trap.  
>The boy was<em> still <em>hanging upside down by one ankle. He couldn't even figure out to use a kunai and cut himself down. Pathetic.

"It's clear to me what should be done and I'll be perfectly blunt. Out of all of you, Nora was the only one to discover the true meaning of this test, teamwork." Kakashi said darkly, glaring at the two boys.

"However, you two boys, whatever your reasons, refused her aid and thus did not pass. If you knew anything you'd know that there are no such things as a two man team or something like that." He continued, making sure to emphasise his glare when he spoke of their reasons. Hiro had refused her help, stating a little girl would have no chance against a jounin. All in all, she would probably be his biggest challenge, if their baby sitting encounters were anything to go by.

"Those who disobey the rules are scum, but those that abandon their comrades, are lower than scum. Both of you have proven to be lower than scum, congratulations." Nora didn't look up. For the past few minutes she had just been staring down at her feet.

"Hiro, your not cut out for a shinobi, you'd do better as a civilian. As for you Inomaru, I have the urge to pass you just so I can have a legal excuse to nearly kill you on a daily basis for emotionally abusing a teammate." He said, looking at the restrained Yamanaka.

"Emotionally abusing? As if, she probably doesn't have any real emotions." The boy muttered. Kakashi narrowed his eye and made a mental note to speak with the boy alone, with the hokage as a witness, to find out where that came from.

Nora seemed to try and shrink herself at the words, trying to make herself as small as possible under their gaze.

"Unfortunatly, despite her talent, since she needs a full team I cannot pass her. At least not officially. Instead she'll be attending Recession Classes, which upon graduating will automatically give her chunin status, so she won't need a team." He said.

_Next Day, Recession Classes._

Ibiki looked over the runts he had to work with this year and muttered something about wasted efforts on his part.  
>He blinked when he read Nora's name but other than that gave no sign or recognition. Last he heard the girl had passed beautifully and was a prodigy. He read that Kakashi had been her sensei and nodded, like that explained everything.<p>

"Alright runts, my name's Ibiki Morino and I will be your instructor for however long it takes me to make you into the perfect chunin." He introduced himself to the newest batch of kids.

"Your blood, sweat, and tears will stain this floor before I'm done with you. Those of you who can stick out the training will be made chunin upon regraduation. Those who can't, will be given civilian jobs." He told them.

"From here on out, none of you will wear the following. White, orange, red, yellow, loose clothing, or anything that does not provide oppurtunities for hidden weapons." Nora wondered briefly what he would think about her red hair before focusing back on his words.

"You will address me either as sir, or you will double your training. If I hear a complaint, your training will double. If a rule is not followed to the letter, double training. If I just don't like the looks of you on one particular day, double training." The kids gulped in response.

"Any questions?" He asked gruffly. No one raised their hands, good, they were learning.

END OF THE CHAPTER SO NOW I MUST PLAN THE NEXT ONE WITH EVEN MORE ANGST!

LC; Well, that went well!

Naruto; Well? You sent me to Recession Classes! How is that well?

LC; Becoming a rotating teammate didn't seem real enough, so now you go to retard class.

Sasuke; I thought it was Recession Class.

LC; That's what I said, retard class!

Sasuke; But you-! You know what? Nevermind.

Naruto; She's nuts.

Sasuke; Tell me something I don't know.


	6. Flying Colors

LC; Back to retard class!

Naruto; Must you call it that?

LC; Yes, yes I must.

Sakura;...Wow, it's been forever since I appeared here.

LC;...WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE! Where's Sasuke?

Sakura; He told me I could take his place today.

LC; *Dark aura*

Both; *Gulp*

Sasuke; *Appears* What the-! I'm supposed to be at the Hot Springs!

LC; Did you really think you could run from me?

Sasuke;...*Gulp*

LC; *Turns off lights* *Sounds and screams of pain are heard*

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto! However I enjoy maiming Sasuke!

Chapter 6; Kunoichi

Ibiki watched as the kids practiced the wall walking excercise. So far only a few had gotten the hang of it and that was only because those people had small reserves. Something he made them run laps on the ceiling to remedy.

Nora Uzumaki though was surprising. For her age he would have expected a small chakra supply, though obviously larger than most her age.  
>If he had to estimate though, he'd say she had a reserve of maybe a tentative ninjutsu aligned chunin. Someone built for the front line if ever he saw one.<p>

She had a lot of trouble on the excercise, mainly not being bounced off it when she charged up. He was impressed that she had not started complaining though, even though he could see the bruises starting to form on her hands and knees from catching herself after she tripped.

She had made progress though, he'd grudgingly admit to that. Even if it was slow progress.

"Hey kid you should just go play house with your mommy!" The guilty kid of that one was immediatly sent to do double work outs, but he didn't take his eyes off of Nora.

She was catching her breath after the thirtieth time falling down, this time from a semi-greater height. She didn't react to it in a way a child could notice, but he wasn't the head of T&I for nothing.

Her eyes traveled ever so slightly to where the boy was now running laps before gaining a sheen in them, not like tears but more similar to the sheen and polish of a new blade. She wasn't faltering under any of the critisims of the failed shinobi, instead she was using them to push herself further upwards.

He narrowed his eyes at that, wondering why she was different than the typical eight year old. She never complained, never asked questions, though he could see the gears in her head looking over his instructions from ever angle, and she was the only one so far who hadn't gotten double training.

After realizing that he'd been tempted to give her double training simply because she had red hair. However he was nothing if not a fair man so he let her off on that one since she already covered it mostly up with a headband.

"Yatta!" He looked up from his musings to see Nora Uzumaki standing upside down on the ceiling, moving around and looking altogether pleased with herself.

He thought briefly of giving double training for speaking but didn't go through with it. The kid needed all the help she could get at this point in her life, especially after the meeting he'd been asked to attend.

A meeting between the copy nin Kakashi, the Hokage, himself, and a young Yamanaka boy.

_Flashback no jutsu!_

"Inomaru Yamanaka, Kakashi brought to my attention some disturbing news as to your behavior towards young Nora Uzumaki." The sandaime said in a calculated tone. He had his suspicions, but he couldn't be sure.

"Can you explain your reasonings for this?" The Yamanaka looked like he wanted nothing more than to run as fast as he could home for a change in pants in Ibiki's fair opinion.

"U-um, Hokage-sama, I c-can't." He said hesitantly.

"Can't or won't?" Ibiki challenged him. The boy jumped out of his skin, apparently having forgotten he was there.

"You seem to think Nora's a monster, care to explain that bit?" Kakashi asked him, his sharingan spinning beneath his hitaite.

"She is." The boy seemed to have grown a pair, finally.

"She, she killed thousands!" Now their interest was peaked. Ibiki himself wondered how Nora and the fox could ever be confused. For one thing, the girl seemed like she wouldn't hurt a mosquito for draining her dry.

"What do you know of that day?" The sandaime asked tactically, his suspicions all but confirmed in his mind.

"I used one of my family's jutsu on myself and saw and heard everything that happened that day." He confessed, looking like he thought he was going to be beheaded the moment the knowledge was let out into the air. Honestly Ibiki would have taken great joy from such a task.

"Inomaru, tell me your opinion on Nora." Hiruzen sighed, causing a long stream of smoke to curl in the air. A tobacco, his one vice.

"She's the kyubi isn't she? So she's obviously a monster!" He said with conviction.

"Inomaru, that day the Kyubi attacked the village, and many good shinobi and kunoichi died trying to stop it. In the end they could only hold it off so that their leader, the Yondaime, could find a way to stop it for good." The sandaime started.

"He was, as you may know, a master of seals. A biju can not be killed, but they can be sealed. However, that immense power can not be sealed within an object, rather they are sealed within human beings, jinchuriki, which is human sacrifice." Inomaru nodded so far, not knowing where this was going.

"The seal he used was vastly complex and designed ingeniusly. It not only drew on the power of the Yondaime, but the power of the newborn Nora and the power of the Shinigami itself." He hadn't known that. The shinigami was said to be even stronger than the biju!

"Someday, Nora will die as all people do, hopefully at a ripe old age. When that day comes, the Kyubi will be dragged to Hell." Inomaru's brows came together and Ibiki read his question from his eyes. So why hadn't they killed Nora to be rid of the Kyubi forever?

"However, a seal of such power is capable of holding back the biju, so long as two out of three of the wills fight against it's power. While she could not fight it as an infant, the Yondaime and shinigami were more than enough to hold it back. Now she is older, and a kunoichi, and her own chakra fights the fox's." He seemed surprised by this.

"She can use it's chakra?" He asked. The sandaime nodded, wondering if he was right in the boy's thinking.

"So your going to train her into being a weapon?" Ibiki was disapointed. He had honestly hoped for better from a kid. Something told him this kid and Danzo would get along like old chums.

"She does not even know of the Kyubi within her, and I would never make a child into a weapon." Hiruzen said firmly, letting his KI leak out just enough to scare the boy.

"Inomaru, Nora is _not_ the Kyubi anymore than I am a woman. She was simply the only one born that day to take the burden. Bad timing does not make her a monster." Kakashi did his best not to kill the boy, Ibiki could see the tell tale twitch of fingers itching for kunai. Even Kakashi, for all his skill, could not fight against subconcious gestures.

Inomaru Yamanaka was dismissed and Ibiki gave his findings on the kid from what he had observed. The boy seemed to feel scared more than anything, but funnily enough not of Nora but the power she had the potential to unleash. Hearing that even if she _wanted_ to she couldn't let the demon out seemed to relieve him.

He knew the boy would be joining the Recession classes, but he and Nora would be kept apart as much as possible. They still weren't sure about her state of mind concerning her once friend's accusations.

_Flashback no jutsu! Kai!_

Ibiki woke from his memories with the calmness and formality that made one wonder if he really had been just staring into space for some time. No one would see the emotions flickering in his gaze or read his body language. He knew the human mind better than even Inoichi Yamanaka and could rule his mind and body better than most shinobi ever managed.

He disliked emotions, but it was not because he felt lightly. Rather, he disliked them because he felt deeply. Because of his career though, expressing these emotions were not encouraged and so they were often buried until a more suitable time.

Back to more important matters, taking these gaki to their psychology class where he would be teaching them how to build their poker faces! Always fun! Although there hadn't been any talent in the area since Anko herself attended one of his classes.

She had proceded to tell him that she was a big purple dinosaur named Barney without him finding a single crack in her poker face. She is now his apprentice.

"Alright gaki, time for psychology class!" He announced, already seeing the looks of horror among a couple students. After all, he was the head of T&I! Cue maniacal laughter.

Nora sighed before letting go of the chakra in her feet and flipping to land right side up on the floor. She didn't even feel very tired after walking upside down on the ceiling for half an hour.

She liked psychology class personally. Maybe it had something to do with the Inner Ruin style she had studied and all the studying she had to do in the way people reacted to threats. Or maybe she just liked it because she often found herself playing on people's words whenever they gave her an order she didn't like.

Ibiki-sensei said they had to knock out their opponent in taijutsu sparring earlier, he never said they had to use the academy style. She had used Inner Ruin and been pleasantly surprised to see how well it affected the boy she fought against. Speaking of, he still couldn't seem to move his arm very well!

Today they would be doing poker faces! While she waited her turn to be able to lie to her sensei, she thought over the Recession classes.  
>So far, they hadn't assigned any bookwork other than stuff like the <span>Trap Maker's Guide to Taking Out Large Groups<span>, Psychology In The Ninja World and Why You Use It, and Herbs, Poisons, And Strategies, Keys To Not Suck! Yeah, that last one was her favorite.

Now if the academy was like this, she would have gladly done all her homework. She wondered why they didn't use these methods in the academy. Not only did it turn out more effective shinobi, but it was more interesting! She made a mental note to put these books into the academy curiculum after she became hokage.

"Uzumaki, tell me a lie." Ibiki ordered suddenly. Having been listening for her name, Nora responded right away.

"I'm a big, purple dinosaur named Barney!" She tried, she honestly did, but saying that with a straight face was nigh impossible. However that pretty much _was_ her poker face. People hardly ever saw her without a smile.

Ibiki blinked at the crazy and familiar lie before moving on. Maybe he should think about giving this kid some extra credit lessons. He should introduce her to Anko.

The day ended rather uneventfully, her shadow was following her around again, she had stopped for ramen, and she had finished any homework she had by five.  
>When Jiraiya got home he asked how things had been since he left. She told him everything, although she did censor the Inomaru part. She was pretty sure he knew already though.<p>

"Are you okay with the Recession classes? You haven't passed the age limit, so you could still go back to the academy." He asked her, obviously concerned. The Recession classes were hard and she was only eight for pete's sake!

"No way! These classes are way more fun! We actually learn useful stuff!" She protested. She seemed to be almost daring him to make her switch classes. It reminded him of the argument she had given him when she found out what kunoichi classes entailed.

Flower arranging, tea ceremony, calligraphy, and seduction were not things she'd ever specialize in if she had any say in the matter. She'd rather chew off her own hands. He had agreed of course. His goddaughter was way too young to be learning seduction! He was a lady's man he'd admit, and his amazing sage senses were telling him Nora would be a looker when she grew up, but he drew the line at them teaching her how to get an enemy nin into bed with her!

Nora was way too innocent, kind, and cute for that kind of work! He had switched her to the shinobi classes almost before Nora had finished saying the name of the class!

"Besides, I already passed those classes and they were boring the first time around." He sighed before letting the argument go. Besides, while difficult to complete the Recession classes did turn out splendid shinobi.

He had been slightly peeved when Kakashi had been forced to tell him that he had failed _his_ goddaughter. He'd had half a mind to stop writing his series and the other half agreed! The only reason he didn't stop was because the next book was almost finished anyway and it wasn't really the silver haired brat's fault.

Nora couldn't be allowed to pass on her own, she had to have a team.

Nora slept peacefully enough, unaware of the powers around her vying for both her protection and destruction.

_ROOT HQ!_

Danzo took another sip of tea as he read over the day's reports. Hmm, so Gato was starting to make a stink in Nami. It seemed that Jiraiya had returned, blast him. Now he would have to wait until the next time the sannin left to see his spies before taking the girl.

Nora's sensor abilities seemed to have grown exponentially. She had almost caught Ram several times. He'd have to make sure Ram's stealth training was upped a bit.

She seemed to have taken a shine to the Recession classes. He personally liked them as well. They were much more effective than the academy lessons. Even if the rules weren't as strict as he would like.

"Danzo-sama, Ibiki-san seems to have taken an interest in the girl." He looked up to see Ram kneeling before him. Ah, so it was already time for the daily report. Where did the time go?

"Apparently she showed a talent in psychology and she appears to be the only one in her class to have not broken one of his rules, thus has not gotten double training." He made a 'hmm' noise and nodded to make him continue.

"Nora also appears to have mastered the first ten or so katas of the Inner Ruin style." Ah yes, he remembered when Ram first reported the girl taking an interest in it. It was great for both assassinations and capture missions. She could disable opponents with a seemingly harmless poke!

"She used it on a classmate?" This was interesting for certain. He wondered why she chose now to use it in public.

"Many of the students were stronger than she so she chose to take away their strength by disabling their arms. Nothing permanant but she did numb one boy's arm badly enough that it could not be effectively used for the remainder of the day." He verified.

"As a note of interest, the same boy who's arm she disabled taunted her in many other classes afterwards, however she did not rise to the taunts and they seemed to make her more determinned to grow stronger. She pushed herself harder after each remark." That was interesting, so she was motivated by remarks on her strength rather than encouragment. He'd make a note of that later.

"Anything else to report?" Danzo asked.

"No sir." He dismissed his operative and took another sip of the cooling tea. He had learned quite a bit today and would need to plan accordingly.

Once again alone in his office he sighed before thinking over everything he had heard and been privy to in the office yesterday.  
>Inomaru was an interesting prospect, he admitted. A bit older than he usually liked and with a pretty good head on his shoulders from what he'd seen. A good sense of self too, which he'd have to break if he did indoctrine him.<p>

However the boy was a mediocre Yamanaka and not paid much attention to in his clan. He needed a Yamanaka. Their mind jutsu would come in handy. However because of those same mind jutsu it would be difficult to shatter his mind in order to rebuild it.

He sighed before finishing his tea. He got up and endeavored to look further into the boy and several other children he had his eyes on.

_Next Day, Recession classes, Trap Making class._

Ibiki stood, speechless, at the absolute chaos that had erupted as soon as the children had entered the classroom. He had given each student ten minutes to set up a trap that would be difficult to spot.

It was Nora Uzumaki's turn. When he had sent in the children to see if they could see Nora's traps, all hell had broken loose. He stood in the doorway, not moving except to dodge a cream pie. Which made him wonder where Nora found a cream pie.

Orange, white and red paint was splattered all over the students, desks, walls, and even the blackboard. Glitter was sticking to a good number of the boys, although for some strange reason all the girls had been missed. No, instead the girls were covered in what appeared to be doujinshi.

He looked harder at the copies only to blush and immediatly turn away again. Not just any doujinshi either, rather Yaoi doujinshi. Rather graphic stuff to from the looks of things.

In the middle of the room, completely clean, stood Nora Uzumaki, looking for all the world like christmas had come early.

"Other than the pie missing I think I did a pretty good job." She said modestly. He had a potential demolitions specialist on his hands, heaven help him.

"Where did you get all this?" He asked curiously. He was certain he'd only left kunai, wire, and a bucket of tar in the room.

"A good kunoichi is always prepared." She showed him a storage scroll, which he was half terrified to find not even half empty. She was still armed and dangerous!

"...I guess you pass." He walked through the door, thinking it was safe now that the class had been completed.

"Wait!" Too late, he heard a _spoing_ and suddenly the doorway where he now stood was covered in a thick smog. One that reminded him of rotten eggs.

"They didn't trigger all the traps." A stink bomb, he got caught by a stink bomb. Screw the girl's talent, she would be begging for mercy before he was finished with her!

"Quadruple training Uzumaki." He said simply. He would have loved to quintuple that but the girl didn't even complain! Looks like he'd have to step it up a notch. Looked like a visit from Anko was in order.

Nora Uzumaki was given a 'passes with literal flying colors' grade for her Trap Making class and forbidden from ever participating again. It just wasn't worth the wasted effort and danger.

She thought the pins on Ibiki-sensei's chair was obvious, he begged to differ.

END OF THE CHAPTER! I LOVED THAT ONE, I HONESTLY LOVED THAT PRANK. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!

LC; Yeah, I took great pride in that one. I honestly did.

Naruto; Scary.

Sasuke; When are we getting to the rest of the neo sannin?

LC; Soon my emo, soon!

Naruto; The story is kinda slow paced isn't it?

LC; I like it this way, besides I thought my first fic, a Kunoichi's Tail, was too fast.

Sasuke; It did seem rushed.

LC; exactly, so I am trying to slow down the pace of my stories now! I think they're much the better for it!


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